Dark Nights Bright Days
by Yellowtail555
Summary: "They've always been an early morning couple". Lucy and Fred are two totally different people with one thing in common, one thing which might not end up being enough.


_This was, once again, for Lady's The Pairing One Hour/Hardest Challenge with e1h, where I had to write 750 words in an hour with the pairing FredxLucy. The prompts I used were: "I really do love you", Setting- Gryffindor Common Room, and Title- Dark Nights, Bright Days. Enjoy and please review. This is 891 words without the author's note._

They've always been an early morning couple.

It just works best that way, they're the only ones in the common room at that time and they both have always loved the mornings.

Fred loves that it's quiet and not quite as chaotic as the rest of the time. He's always been use to being in the wrong place at the wrong time but in the morning he doesn't have to worry about it.

Lucy loves the dawn. The sunrise is a wave of colors that remind her of magic and it's a special time for the two of them. She's always liked being special.

They meet up in the Gryffindor common room most mornings, normally around four or five. Lucy's a Ravenclaw but while those Gryffindors like to believe their password is their secret that no one else can guess, she always seems to know what it is. The Fat Lady frowns disapprovingly at her blue robes but there's really not much a portrait can do.

Lucy's favorite part of the morning is the long walk through the castle to the tower, ducking around corners at the first sound of footsteps and the constant excitement of having to avoid the staff. It makes her feel like a daredevil, like a Gryffindor, and she doesn't feel that way the rest of the time.

Fred's favorite part is having a reason to get up. He hates the nights, when he wakes up from dreams of falling which are just too real. It's always the Astronomy Tower that he's falling off of while Lucy watches in horror. He can always hear her scream in his ears.

They sneak up to the Tower together, she sits on the edge with her legs hanging off, her hands gripping the railing and he always stays a bit farther back, too scared of his dreams becoming a reality.

Fred has always hated the dark nights and she's the only one who'll make him brave enough to conquer them. 'It's not night', she always reminds him, not that he believes her, 'it's the next morning'. He believes everything else that she says but not that. Never that.

Lucy has always hated the bright days. People are too loud, going on about things that don't matter. They all talk and then scream to be heard over everyone else, not that anyone's even listening to her. She's a fantasy kind of girl, the world's not made for her.

They watch the sunrise together. The colors wash across the pale sky, fanning over the grounds of Hogwarts and it's truly breathtaking. Too bad no one else will bother to get up and watch it. They've almost become immune to the beauty and they don't know what they'll do once that happens because the sunrise is the glue in the relationship that kinda-sorta isn't.

Lucy is a girl who appreciates the beauty. She can relate to the colors, almost, because she's beautiful as well, with her bright red hair and amber eyes and wide smile but that kind of beauty is often ignored because it's the plain, real-life sort that you can find nearly everywhere. They're both forgotten by bigger, better things.

Fred loves the sunrise because it's bright enough to trick his sleep-deprived mind into thinking that it's morning. He wishes he was an insomniac because he's too scared to close his eyes at night and find out what's waiting for him, even if he already knows.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

"I really do love you."

"I know."

It's just meaningless chatter to the both of them.

Fred has only ever thrown out those words to see something. He wants to know if she really does care for him. He doesn't love her, she's his cousin. He doesn't, does he?

Lucy is only a halfway decent liar and it's normally at the times when it truly doesn't matter. Whenever he brings it up, she's too scared that he'll find out she's lying about what she feels for him to really understand what the words mean.

They're cousins.

Lucy doesn't see why it matters. She doesn't like him, not like _that,_ but it has nothing to do with their blood relationship. Lucy's been called innocent way too many times when she isn't but on this, she is. They share a last name but she doesn't see why that should stop her from loving him if she did.

They're friends.

Fred knows that sometimes best friends fall for each other, but that's not what this is. To begin with, they're not best friends. They'll spend mornings together but they're in different houses and different years and they're most certainly not best friends. Besides that, he hasn't fallen for her. They have something, but he doesn't love her, he doesn't.

They're an early morning couple.

It may have been how it all started but it'll be their downfall, nearly as certainly.

Lucy would much rather be a dark night girl, because it's only in the black of midnight that she can pretend that she's as brave as she wishes she was.

Fred would much rather by a bright day guy, because it's only in the light of noon that he can pretend that everything that he dreams about isn't as important to him as it is.

It won't work, whatever it was.


End file.
